Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy · Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Reflecting on his involvement in massive strategic M&A transactions including VMware, Databricks, and Cursor, Martin Casado emphasizes that successful deals rely on deep personal alignment, trust, and shared visions of the future rather than traditional banker-led auctions.
“When I sold my company to VMware... it was a $1.26 billion exit... And then actually, I was part of a deal that beat that, which was the tabular acquisition to Databricks. And then, of course, Kersh, I think it was the largest private fit acquisition ever.”
“Every one of these deals, and these are world record deals, The companies in very good faith engage with the buyers. They didn't play any games... And there's a lot of trust.”